IS GLADWELL OTIENO AN ENEMY OF THE STATE?

 

Ms Gladwell Otieno is the founder and Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Open Governance (AfriCOG), a Kenya-based anti-corruption civil society organization that focuses on fighting corruption and promoting good governance. 

Through AfriCOG, she also convenes the influential network, Kenyans for Peace with Truth and Justice (KPTJ), a consortium of civil rights advocates and civil society organisations that advocate and monitor progress on the implementation of the 2008 post-election crisis agreement.

Most notable is AfriCOG’s recent enjoinment in the March 4, 2013 general election petition against IEBC and the controversy-marred announcement of Uhuru Kenyatta as president and William Ruto as his deputy.

Previously, on the run up to the elections, she, together with KPTJ, took on Lucy Ndung’u, the registrar of political parties over the involuntary registration of Kenyans to certain political parties. She demanded Ndungu's removal from office in the wake of these revelations.

Ms Otieno and fellow human rights defender Maina Kiai launched a website this year, intended to lay out all the evidence that AfriCOG presented at the Supreme Court during the petition. The site also collects opinion on how IEBC and other agencies behaved during the March 4 elections. The site intends to kick off a debate that would see future elections conducted professionally and to strengthen democracy.

She is the vice chair of the Board of Trustees of the African Leadership Centre. She is also deputy chair of the United Nations Convention against Corruption Coalition Coordination Committee, working for the implementation of the UNCAC. Moreover, Ms Otieno sits on the Board of the Partnership for Transparency Fund.  

Ms Otieno is a member of the international steering committee of the Open Government Partnership. She recently joined the Board of the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA). She is also linked with the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa, where she led the African Security Analysis Programme. 

Here, she offered advice to organizations such as the African Parliamentarians Network against Corruption, the Sierra Leonean, Zambian and Malawian anti-corruption commissions. On invitation, she worked with OECD to help in developing policy guidelines on tackling corruption in political circles. 

In Zimbabwe, Ms Otieno conducted a baseline study on anti-corruption, advising the World Bank, donors and the Office of the Prime Minister on anti-corruption policies in a fragile environment. Moreover, she is the Vice Chair of the United Nations Convention against Corruption Coalition Coordination Committee, working for the implementation of UNCAC and is on the Board of the Partnership for Transparency Fund.

Prior to being the head of Transparency International (TI) Kenya, Gladwell had worked with Transparency International in Berlin, Germany. Some blogs have also listed her as one of Kenya’s heroines. She also comments on various issues on her blog at AfriCOG. 

Her educational background shows that Ms. Otieno went to Karen Primary School and Kenya High School. Her performance at both O and A levels was stellar. In her tertiary education, she studied Political Science and French at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and the Free University of Berlin. In 2006, she was one of the fellows at Stanford University Summer Fellowship on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. 

Family

Gladwell Otieno is the daughter of the late freedom fighter (Virginia Edith Wambui) Wambui Otieno and prominent criminal lawyer, the late Silvano Melea Otieno. She grew up in a family that was not new to controversy. Upon the death of her father, there arose a land-mark legal tussle between common and customary law in Kenya. The battle was on where to bury the late Silvano. The court case went on for more than 20 years.

Sadly, on April 15, 2012, Gladwell lost her son Sylvano Manala Wilhem Otieno who died together with Brian Waweru Mwaura and Nsanya Otis Kapya in a tragic road accident along James Gichuru Road in Nairobi. Charged with dangerous driving resulting in the tragic accident, was David Lawrence Kigera Gichuki. The case continues on October 26. 

Controversy

Ms. Otieno is not new to controversy. On February 16, 2005, speaking at a forum organized by Transparency International (Kenya) and the Kenya Social Forum she would reiterate that, “lack of political goodwill, excessive bureaucracy and over-regulation, lack of protection for whistleblowers, weak enforcement and patronage networks, were some of the factors that made corruption networks thrive.” 

During the forum, she also called for a no confidence vote against the new Kibaki regime. In addition, she asked civil society members to reconsider the positions in government commissions. This came against the backdrop of the resignation of anti-corruption tsar, John Githongo. She also asked the government to guarantee the safety of the former Ethics and Governance PS. 

Gladwell’s tenure at the Transparency International came to a sudden end when she resigned on April 14, 2005. William Maclean (Reuters) wrote, “A vocal anti-graft campaigner said on Friday she had quit as head of the Kenya branch of watchdog Transparency International (TI) after colleagues complained she was too openly critical of the government.” She rejected advances by the then TI board to offer a public apology to the government for her statements on official sleaze.

In some circles, people close to former president Mwai Kibaki are believed to have played a key role in her ouster. In his blog post, social justice activist Onyango Oloo wrote, “these shameless, corrupt political THUGS around Mwai Kibaki are so BRAZEN… It would appear as if Ms. Otieno’s fatal crime was not keeping up the charade, of being her own person.” This strongly suggested an invisible hand that led to her resigning.

Joe Wanjui, at that time a Kibaki confidant and TI board chair, said there was nothing political behind her resignation, which came only two months after Githongo quit his government post. That year, Kenya held an unenviable position 129 out of 146 countries in the Transparency International’s annual global survey on graft.

While at TI, she would brush shoulders with senior government officials. Early in 2005, she rejected a cheque of Sh 136,000 paid to her as ‘sitting allowance’ for her role as the vice-chair of the National Anti-Corruption Campaign Steering Committee. Instead, she donated the cheque to the newly established Starehe Girls’ Centre. A few days later, First Lady Lucy Kibaki urged the school to hand the money back to Ms Otieno.

Lately, various blogs have published statements by an alleged ICC witness linking Gladwell as a witness. However, there is currently no veracity into that information. The blog says, “The second witness, Number K0336 from Uasin Gishu County, says he has chosen to withdraw because he is appalled by the inclusion, in the case, of an NGO (read AFRICOG) and other individuals (read Gladwell Otieno & Co.) with political affiliations.” Is Gladwell Otieno an enemy of the state?